PhD position in Computerised Image Processing

Sort on published: 2018-04-23

Uppsala University is a comprehensive research-intensive university with a strong international standing. Our mission is to pursue top-quality research and education and to interact constructively with society. Our most important assets are all the individuals whose curiosity and dedication make Uppsala University one of Sweden’s most exciting workplaces. Uppsala University has 42,000 students, 7,000 employees and a turnover of SEK 6.7 billion.

The Department of Information Technology has a leading position in research and education. The Department currently has about 280 employees, including 120 teachers and 110 PhD students. More than 4000 students study one or more courses at the department each year. More info: http://www.it.uu.se

The Centre for Image Analysis has a long tradition of theoretical and applied research and graduate education in computerized image analysis and scientific visualization. The focus is on image processing as such, but also on developing better methods, algorithms and systems for applications within primarily life sciences, medicine, and digital humanities. For more information, see www.cb.uu.se.

Research project: The expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most exciting developments of the 21st century. This progress opens up many possibilities and at the same time is posing grand challenges. This project aims at addressing some of the challenges by contributing to the development of the mathematical foundation of this area.

Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are showing impressive results in a variety of tasks in image data analysis and understanding. This project explores ways to further improve their performance by representing and exploiting their properties, such as known equivariances, as well as learning equivariances from data. The project builds on, and extends recent very promising works on Geometric deep learning and combines this with Manifold learning, to produce truly learned equivariances without the need for engineered solutions.

Theoretical development will be evaluated on applications in medical and biomedical image analysis, where large amounts of expert annotated training data, essential for high performance of Deep convolutional networks, are expensive to obtain and still rather limited. The developed techniques will be utilized to reduce the need for training examples by exploiting the internal structure of the data and thereby greatly reduce the risk of overfitting.

The project will be conducted at the Centre for Image Analysis, the Division of Visual Information and Interaction, Uppsala University, within WASP – the Wallenberg Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Systems and Software Program, Sweden’s largest ever individual research program, a major national initiative for strategically motivated basic research, education and faculty recruitment.

Qualifications: The candidate must have (at the time of the start of the project) a Master of Science degree in mathematics, engineering, computer science, or related areas relevant to the PhD project topics. Excellent study results, in particular in mathematics subjects, good programming skills, good communication skills, good command of both spoken and written English, are required. Expertise and experience in machine learning and digital image analysis are meriting. Prior knowledge of Swedish is not required.

Appointment period: The position is for four years, but may be extended by teaching and department duties (at most 20%). The PhD education also includes participation in a set of mandatory and other courses and some joint activities organized within the WASP AI-Math Graduate School.

Working in Sweden: Sweden is a fantastic place for living and working. Swedes are friendly and speak excellent English. The quality of life is high, with a strong emphasis on outdoor activities. The Swedish working climate emphasizes an open atmosphere, with active discussions involving both junior and senior staff. All PhD students and Postdocs are full employees, with standard salaries and five weeks of paid holiday. The starting salary of PhD student is currently 27400sek/month (around 2700Euro/month). Spouses of employees are entitled to work permits, and, after being awarded a PhD degree, non-EU-citizens are eligible for permanent work permits. Healthcare is free after a small co-pay and the university provides additional occupational health services and subsidizes athletic costs, such as a gym membership. The parental benefits in Sweden are among the best in the world, including extensive parental leave (for both parents), paid time off to care for sick children, and affordable daycare.

Application: The application should include a description of yourself, your research interests, reasons for applying for this particular PhD position and past experience (max. 3 pages), a CV, copies of relevant university degrees and transcripts, relevant publications, a copy of your MSc thesis (or a summary in case the thesis is ongoing) and other relevant documents. Candidates are encouraged to provide contact information to up to 3 reference persons. We would also like to know your earliest possible date for starting.

Please note that applications can only be accepted via the web interface link below (and not via email).

Uppsala University strives to be an inclusive workplace that promotes equal opportunities and attracts qualified candidates who can contribute to the University’s excellence and diversity. We welcome applications from all sections of the community and from people of all backgrounds.

Salary: According to local agreement for PhD students and teaching assistants.

Are you considering moving to Sweden to work at Uppsala University? If so, you will find a lot of information about working and living in Sweden at www.uu.se/joinus. You are also welcome to contact International Faculty and Staff Services at ifss@uadm.uu.se.

We decline offers of recruitment and advertising help. We only accept the application the way described in the advertisement.

Placement:
Department of Information Technology

Type of employment:
Full time
, Temporary position longer than 6 months